The majority of those who have died in the South are Muslims at the hands of the insurgency. While there are inklings of the conflict taking on a Buddhist vs. Muslim character – and this is a meme that the insurgency would like to spread – it is mostly just a poor, easy hook that the international press employs. The insurgents attack all who are opposed to their project, Muslim or Buddhist. It remains, as far as we can tell, a very local affair (i.e. no international jihad) and primarily an ethno-nationalist insurgency.

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Thanks for writing about this, it seems to confirm my own impressions that this is basically an ethno-nationalist conflict and not a Buddhist vs Muslim struggle. Unfortunately it continues to be portrayed this way in the media...